The 2012 Next American Vanguard Class

Walk Raleigh, a project by Matt Tomasulo, one of this year’s Vanguard members

Just two weeks after we collected nearly 200 applications for this year’s Next American Vanguard class, we’ve selected 43 people whose bright ideas for cities, experience in the field and ambition for the future all show great promise. Coming from 24 cities, this group will be assembling in St. Louis in October, along with past members of the Vanguard for workshops, tours and panel discussions about how to improve American cities. A host committee, led by the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, and including members from HOK, STLStyle, Preservation Research Office, McCormick Baron Salazar and others, has graciously lent time and support to make the event a success.

What insights can be drawn from this year’s class? More than ever, our Vanguard class works for robust private and non-profit organizations and government, rather than community development corporations. While many of our Vanguard class members work for large organizations, many got hooked on having an impact on their city with blogs and other local projects of their own. So we’re seeing a formalization of young urbanists, with new pathways toward influence. In past years we’ve seen certain trends like sustainability, urban agriculture and social entrepreneurship show up in the applicant pool; this year, for whatever reason, we saw many people working in planning, technology, design. Perhaps this reflects renewed interest in placemaking and our continued love affair with digital technology.

We always try to keep the group geographically diverse. We’re still not making many inroads in the Southwest, (people in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico — call me!), but we have three Texans joining this year’s class. The Midwest and East Coast are heavily represented, but we’ve got people from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina representing the South better than in years past. With dozens of applications from St. Louis, we could only add two people to the official class, but we hope to find ways to engage locals at the Vanguard event — stay tuned for that.

Finally, the tenor of applications has changed. In the past, people wrote about literally feeling like they were helping to save their city. It seems that the city has come back from the brink, that while there are still many troublesome indicators in terms of jobs, crime and education, our cities are starting to grow again. I can’t wait to see how that changes the kind of conversations we’ll have this year and in future years.

Vanguard 2012 Class

Stephanie Allewalt
Milwaukee, Wisc.
Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, Fund Development Manager
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Adjunct Professor